Book excerpt: This book examines how the Chinese state responds to the increasingly diverse civil society and maintains regime stability in a changing society. In recent years, the Chinese leadership has demonstrated great capability of adapting and developing sophisticated mechanisms of social control. The chapters in this book cover a wide range of these mechanisms, including co-opting social forces, managing population and migration, as well as controlling the media, trade unions, the internet, non-governmental organisations, and the cultural industries. The authors also discuss challenges the government is about to face and possible adjustments.